Palestinians Cheer Gazan Winner of Arab Idol Competition

Mohammed Assaf of Gaza is the first Palestinian to win the Arab Idol award.

Tens of thousands of celebrating Palestinians flooded the streets of the Gaza Strip late Saturday and early Sunday after Mohammed Assaf, a wedding singer turned regional celebrity, won the “Arab Idol” singing competition.

Residents of the blockaded Palestinian enclave chanted, honked their car horns and waved Palestinian flags until the early hours of Sunday morning, according to television reports, cheering a hometown hero whose unlikely shot at fame has come to symbolize a national struggle.

Street celebrations were reported throughout the Israeli-occupied West Bank to as far afield as Palestinian refugee camps in Northern Lebanon.

Saturday’s festivities marked a rare moment of levity for Gazans. Israel has imposed tight sanctions on the Gaza Strip since 2007, when the militant Islamist group Hamas wrested control of the area from the more moderate Fatah Palestinian political party.

The last time the Strip saw such celebrations was late November 2012 after Palestinian negotiators inked a cease-fire deal with Israel following a week-long Israeli missile bombardment that killed about 130 Palestinians.

Israeli authorities have said they were defending themselves from Hamas rockets that killed six Israelis during a week of battle.

For the past few weeks, the story of Mr. Assaf’s personal struggle and rise from poverty has kept the Arab world riveted. Born in Benghazi, Libya, Mr. Assaf’s family moved when he was four years old to Gaza, where he was raised in the dense refugee camp of Khan Younes.

Mr. Assaf, who began singing at age 5, started his professional career as a wedding singer in the Gaza Strip — a seaside region about twice the size of Washington, DC, that is home to about 1.65 million Palestinians.

To try out for Arab Idol, Mr. Assaf had to cross the highly restricted border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip before making the long drive across Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to Cairo and then flying to Beirut, Lebanon.

Even as he accepted the award, Mr. Assaf’s win immediately sought to infuse the win with political symbolism.

The handsome 23-year old crooner dedicated his award to the “Palestinian people, who have been suffering for more than 60 years from occupation.”

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the global organization’s Palestinian relief and advocacy arm, immediately made Mr. Assaf their first ever “Regional Youth Ambassador for Palestine Refugees,” complete with a diplomatic passport.

“All Palestinians share in his success,” said Filippo Grandi, UNRWA’s Commissioner General, in a statement on the UNRWA website. “Mohammad’s music is a universal language and speaks to all of us. How fantastic that a Palestine refugee from Gaza should bring us all together in this way.”

Despite the excitement, the Gaza Strip’s hardline Islamist rulers were more circumspect. In the past, the group has criticized singing shows such as American Idol for behavior they consider to be un-Islamic.

While Mr. Assaf’s win inspired official praise from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who reportedly spoke with the rising star over the phone before his performance on Saturday and made him an honorary ambassador after his win, Hamas yes yet to comment on the singer’s ascent to stardom.